Improvement in devices for making face-plates for draw-bars



J. GREEN.

DEVICES FOR MAKING FACE-PLATES FOR DRAW-BARS.

No. 184,859. C 214% 'PatentedNov .j28,1876

Wz'fness es,- (svvmru/ ivrrnn STATES TENT a? nron.

JOHN GREEN, OF SUNBURY, PA., ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF HIS RIGHT TO GEORGE W. SMITH AND WILLIAM H. MILLER, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN DEVICES FOR MAKlNG FACE-PLATES FOR DRAW-BARS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. [84,859, dated November 28, 1876; application filed October 5, 1876.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN GREEN, of Sunbury, in the county of Northumberland and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Face-Plates for Draw-Bars of Cars; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of .the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming part of this specification, in which- Figures 1 and 2 show side and plan views of the cutters; Fig. 3, the blank cut by the same; Figs.4= and 5, side and plan views of the guide-plates Figs. 6 and 7, details of the detachable dies; Figs. 8 and 9, views of the blank as punched and bent; Figs. 10,11, and 12, plan and side viewsof the curved bending-plates.

My invention relates to certain improvements in the manufacture of metallic faceplates for the draw-bars of railroad-cars; and it consists in a series of tools to be used for the common end of making the said plates,

which tools are employed for the successivesteps of cutting out the blanks, stamping the slot and rivet-holes, and bending the stamped plate into curved form, each of the tools being provided with extended handles for their convenient manipulation beneath the hammer, whereby all of the said steps of the operation are conducted under the same heat employed for forging the blank plates.

In the accompanying drawing, 0 G represent the two cutters for stamping or cutting the outline of the oval plates, said cutters being each a semicircular knife, its curvature corresponding to the curve required for the end of the plate, and having projecting handles, by which they are manipulated under the hammer. A A are the guideplates for the punches which punch the slot and rivet holes into the faceplate after it shall have been stamped. Said plates have a central slot, which receives the punch B, that punches the slot in the face-plate, and have also, uponeach side of the same, holes that receive the smaller punches B B, that punch the rivet-holes in the face-plate. The guide-plates A are provided with handles for their manipulation,

which handles are connected at their extremities by spring a. This spring may be separate and removable, as shown, or the two handles maybe welded homogeneously together and bent to form a spring, or, in the place of the same, the two handles may be hinged together. D D are the curved plates for imparting the curve to the face-plate of the drawbar after it has passed through the preceding steps of stamping and punching. These plates are also provided with handles.

The method of manufacturing the face-plates according to my invention is as follows: The stock or material from which the same are manufactured is, for the sake of cheapness, prepared from car-axles and scrap-iron, which is brought to a proper heat and hammered into plates. The cuttersO are then placed upon the plate during the same heat at which the latter is forged, as in Fig. 2, and inserted between the anvil and a steam-hammer, the ends of the plate E being cut to oval shape, one at atime or both together, as may be desired. The blank thus formed, and shown in Fig. 3, constitutes the incipient face-plate.

The advantage arising out of the use of the separable cutters G, in contradistinctionto a single oval-block die is, that they are in themselves tools which may be easily manufactured, repaired, and sharpened by any blacksmith, the handles permitting them to be conveniently and rapidly manipulated, while their separable character permits the formation of a better blank, which may be variable in size. The blank is then placed between the guideplates A, as in Fig. 5, and the punches B B placed in the top guide-plates in position to be struck by the hammer. The guide-plates are then manipulated between the hammer and the anvil, as before, and the punches B B forced down into the guide-plates by the strokes of the hammer punching out the ceut-ralslot, and the rivet-holes in the interposed blank E, which is thus made to assume the appearance shown in Fig. 8. The punches B B may be either concaved or plain upon their cutting-edge, but are preferably made concaved or guttered, while the guide-plates may be faced with de-. tachable plates of steel. The advantages of this form of tool for punching the plates are.

and enter the holes below. The handles,moreover, render the manipulation more rapid, which is a consideration, in view of the fact :lhat the plates are to be finished at a single eat. sity of guide-bolts for efi'ecting the registration of the holes-in the two plates A, this being more particularly the case when the bandles are joined and formed into a spring, as described. The plate, as shown in Fig. 8, with l.

its holes punched, is then placed between the curved plates D D and bent into the curved shape shown in Fig. 9, to form a perfect and smooth face-plate for a draw-bar.

I am aware that face-plates have been constructed in a single heat by first stamping the samebyasingle oval die and afterward punching the slot and bending the plate in a-single operation. This method, however, does not secure the advantages that my separable cutters do, and the stamping and bending in one operation leaves a burr or flange upon the edge of the punched surfaces. My separate operation of punching the holes by a special device, and afterward bending the plate, formsa perfectly smooth plate free from The spring on also obviates the necesthe flange .or burr, for the reason thatthe subsequent bendingupon a plain curved plate flattens out any flange that the dies may have formed. My device also being provided each with handles, it will be seen that the method is rendered more expeditious, and the faceplates maybe manufactured so much more rapidly, as not only to effect the whole operation in one heat, but to leave them red hot when complete, thus saving time and cheapening their production.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is LThe series of tools, consisting of the separable cutter O, the guide-plates A, having link-slot and rivet-holes, with corresponding detachable punches B B, and the plain curved plates D, all provided with handles for their manipulations beneath the hammer, and adapted for successive use to the common end of forming face-plates for the draw-bars of railway-cars, substantially as described.

2. The guide-plates A A, having link-slot and rivet-holes, and handles connected by a spring or its equivalent, as described, in combination with the detachable punches B B, substantially as and for the purpose described.

JOHN GREEN. Witnesses:

W. H. THURSTON, JAMES GATTON. 

